Robert A. George's ruminations on politics, race, pop culture, sports, comic books & various other sundry temptations of the human condition. Yes, he writes for the New York Post, but the views here are solely his own.

Monday, April 23, 2007

RAGGED Weekend, Pt. 2: WHCA

After croquet, your RT correspondent headed west on Route 50 for the White House Correspondents Association annual bash. Some juicy items can be found in this Washington Post report.

Here's some flavor, courtesy of your RT correspondent.

This is the lovely -- though blatantly liberal -- actress Kerry Washington. She portrayed Ray Charles' wife Della Bea Robinson in Ray. Ironically, she plays blind sculptress Alicia Masters, love interest of The Thing in the next Fantastic Four movie. She's pictured with Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page and his wife Lisa.

Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher was busy making the rounds: The guy with his back to the camera is American Idol castoff Chris Sligh.

A number of people seemed to want to get their picture taken with this young man with the unusual hair style, but I'm not sure what the big deal was.

Now, I was sitting at the table right next to the guy in this picture. There seemed to be a parade of females of various ages coming up to get their picture taken -- including the aforementioned Teri Hatcher who made sure that she got a photo with him before she walked over to the dais to chat up the president of the United States! Who is the lucky young fellow? His name is Zac Effron, star of Disney's High School Musical. He is apparently the bees knees with the pre-teen set -- and others.

On-screen, the principal "entertainment" of the evening, Rich Little. This relic of the '70s was brought in because of the controversy that erupted over Stephen Colbert last year. The WHCA wanted someone who wouldn't be too edgy or potentially offensive to the president. Well, they got that from Little. They also got someone who created bipartisan agreement from the crowd: Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, moderates, etc., all agreed that Little was awful. There may have been one joke that couldn't have been delivered 15 years ago, but that was about it.

As one wag put it at the end of Little's routine (which, of course, was a Richard Nixon impression), "Our long national nightmare is over." That wag, of course, was yours truly.

On the other hand, David Letterman's "Top Ten George W. Bush Moments" -- a compendium of malapropisms and faux pas -- was rather amusing. That's available here:

Is this the eventual GOP presidential nominee? Could be. After all, Republican Arthur Branch managed to be elected district attorney in heavily Democratic Manhattan, so the sky's the limit!

Protestors outside the Washington Hilton (where the WHCA dinner is held every year) are clearly confused: The media doesn't "buy" Bush's war. We sell it. There is a crucial difference.